Assembly candidate under investigation

My colleague Kenneth C. Crowe II reports that Keith Hammond, a former Rensselaer County legislator running in the Democratic primary for the state Assembly, is being investigated for allegedly having oral sex with a developmentally disabled woman.

According to a complaint filed by ARC staff with Troy police, Hammond, who is a bus and van driver for ARC, asked a 20-year-old woman who was on one of his vans for oral sex, and the woman agreed. The investigation appears to be hinging on whether the whether the woman was able to consent to the acts.

From Ken’s story:

The ARC staff told officers that the woman “had come to them and told them that several times from the beginning of March until the end of June S(uspect) had asked VI (victim) for oral sex while the(y) were out on different trips and she agreed,” the complaint states.

Hammond is employed as a van or bus driver for the ARC.

The written complaint says the victim was not forced to participate but notes that she “does suffer from developmental defects.”

“P(erpetrator) did not force VI to conduct this act but VI was in the care of P at the time,” the complaint states.

She was the last passenger on the van at the time of the incident.

The complaint is under investigation, a law enforcement source said. A determination must be made by a physician whether the young woman was mentally capable of consenting to having sex with another individual.

Hammond of Averill Park and his attorney Brian Premo would not comment about the investigation.